Making 2017 Another Adventure

New year new me? Nah, I prefer to set a few goals and plan a couple adventures when the new year rolls around. Last year was pretty action packed, so I’m massively looking forward to seeing what I can fit in this year. I’ve managed to meet my January challenge, so I just have to keep the momentum going!

January brings the TCA climbing competition. I have managed to get some focused and consistent training in ahead of the competition on the 21st. I placed 11th in the December accumulator comp…. shame it was out 11. Here’s to improving!

Throughout the rest of the year, I’ll be aiming to take my climbing outside more and build my confidence with rigging top ropes and placing gear so that trad and sports climbing can make a feature on the warmer days.

March is looking quite exciting. As a long time member of the Scouts, the Explorer Belt is one award that I never thought I would fit in before I turned 25. Happily, I was wrong! There are three of us planning to hike from Geneva to Lausanne around lac Leman over 10 days. Passing through Switzerland and France, we’ll be putting our endurance and language skills to the test. We are hoping to link up with some local Scouts,so if that’s you please do get in touch!

June is The Isle of Skye Half Marathon. I completed this as my first ever half
marathon last year, and I’m hoping to beat my previous time of 2.04.36. Oh, and I’m sure we’ll do some exploring while we’re on the island. Maybe not hiking the day after the race though…. owch

Old Man o’ Storr

Fairy pools

Race weary, but I got the t-shirt!

In August(ish), we are hoping to do the North Coast 500. Predictably, it’s a 500 mile driving route around the very north coast of Scotland. We will probably take about a week, and I will probably be aiming to bag a few munros on route. September. Mountain leader assessment. I’ve still got a bit of work to do before I am fully prepared for this, but with a lot of the summer free I should be good to go!

In December Craig and I are planning to head over to New Zealand for a few weeks. At the moment, we have planned to spend most of our time on North Island spending a lot of time in and around the national parks and just taking our time exploring.

As always, I would love to be out hiking more and more. This year I’ll aim to bag some more hills in Glencoe and around Glen Affric. With a logbook to build and a new set of waterproofs, I’ve got no excuse!